Thank you. Could you break down those numbers for me on both the appointments and vacancies by region, as well as when the appointments were made and when they became vacant? Could I also get that, particularly in the western region, broken down by cities, if I may?

Now that we have the IRB representative here, at the last appearance we had heard that there was an increase of 1,400 cases per month to the workload of the IRB. Could you give us an update on what the status is with respect to that?

My first question is about the supplementary estimates. I see that they include $1 million for settlement services advertisement. It has been my experience that there's too often a disconnect between the services available to the immigrants and the immigrants who need access to those services. Could you discuss the purposes of this advertising campaign? Can you assure us that it will include advertising in the ethnic media that are most read by new Canadians?

This funding is intended to increase the awareness of programs and services provided under the settlement services programs of the department—language skills courses, labour market access, and welcoming communities. It's intended that the media mix for this would include a strong focus on ethnic media, including online and print, in order to reach the greatest possible number of individuals who might be able to take advantage of those services.

There is a range of opportunities for individuals to be provided with information, including prior to landing through our pre-arrival services, as well as when they land, and then subsequently through the settlement service provider organizations, by which we reach out to new immigrants and provide them with information. The idea of this advertising is to increase their awareness so that they have a better idea of where to search out exactly what they need.

I would have to get back to you on details of the communications plan. It's under development at this point. Given that we are looking at advertising in ethnic media, I would assume we'd be advertising in the language of the media we are looking at.

My next question is about the parents and grandparents category of the stream of immigration.

During our committee's study of family reunification, we heard about frustrations with the intake process and the efforts of the department to clear the application backlog. We also heard about the value of parents and grandparents in the success of the family unit, its integration into Canada, and its contribution to our economy. Before we completed our report, the IRCC announced a lottery system of intake for 2017 applications to the program.

Can you report on how the first year under this new system has gone? Has it been successful? Have there been any challenges? Do you anticipate any changes in the next year, or will you continue with the lottery system?

This was the first year of the new process of randomized selection intake. In that process in 2017, sponsors were required to indicate their interest to sponsor by completing an interest-to-sponsor form that was made available for 30 days. At the end of this period, the department had received over 100,000 submissions. As per the ministerial instructions, after removing the duplicates, 10,000 persons were randomly selected and invited to sponsor their grandparents and parents. From that initial round of 10,000, over 6,000 applications have been received. Since the department didn't receive the full 10,000 from that first round, additional potential sponsors were invited to apply, and they will have until December 8 for IRCC to receive a complete application.

Given that this was the first year of the randomized selection intake process, we will of course be looking at this year's experience in order to help us plan for next year.